How Does Smoking Affect My Risk Of Developing Asthma?

Answer: Smoking is a significant risk for developing asthma, particularly second-hand smoke exposure experienced by children whose parents or other people who live in the household have a large smoking burden. Tobacco smoke primes the immune system to make it more likely that children will become allergic, and that exposure will increase the likelihood of having asthma.

There are a number of studies that demonstrate that children born to women who smoke, or women who smoked during pregnancy, have a much higher risk of having both asthma and other respiratory diseases during early childhood.